New Jersey Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Jr. (pictured) has announced that on December 13 members of the Assembly will vote on whether to reduce the state’s most severe punishment to life in prison without parole. A spokeswoman for Senate President Richard J. Codey said the Senate is likely to take similar action before the legislative session ends on January 8, though a date has not been set for the vote. If approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jon Corzine, who opposes the death penalty, the move would make New Jersey the first state to vote to abolish capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976.

Roberts made the announcement in Trenton after meeting with Sister Helen Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking.” He called New Jersey’s death penalty a “flawed public policy” that is costly, discriminatory, immoral and cruel. He added that “the consequences are irreparable if mistakes are made” and said that “the time has come” to consider the abolition measure. Prejean praised the decision and said that New Jersey is “going to be a beacon on the hill.”

New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982, but has not executed anyone since 1963. The Legislature imposed a moratorium on executions in December 2005 when it formed a commission that studied the death penalty. The state has eight men on death row.

(Associated Press, November 9, 2007). See Recent Legislative Activities and Innocence.